


Lingering

by cae_134



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Budding Love, F/M, Hogwarts, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-11
Updated: 2018-02-11
Packaged: 2019-03-16 15:50:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13639398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cae_134/pseuds/cae_134
Summary: Aurelia Dunne is a naturally curious girl and during her 5th year at Hogwarts she takes an interest in the school's most mischievous twins. Learn more about Aurelia as her relationship with the twins gets stronger, like her father's mysterious past and her relations with the infamous killer Sirius Black. An interest becomes an infatuation and friendships become something more.The first major part of the story starts at the beginning of the Prisoner of Azkaban, I don't really have a set point for the ending. The first few chapters are going to be exposition, so sorry about that I guess. Feel free to skip the Prologue.





	1. Prologue

Nothing could have prepared Aurelia for the sights she would see that night. As wonderful as the Great Hall usually was it could not compare to this. At eight o' clock sharp the large doors of the Great Hall opened and floods of students walked in, most delirious with excitement. Aurelia watched as girls grabbed the hands of their partners and giddily lead them into the Yule Ball. Aurelia and her date both waited a few moments for the crowd of students to disappear into the hall, suddenly he turned to her. His dark dress robes did not exactly match his red head and his hair looked far too messy for a formal event like this, but Aurelia did not think less of him because of it. He held out his hand to her and gave her one of his typical goofy grins. 

"Come on my lady." He said only half-serious, Aurelia gave him a quick smirk and grabbed his hand. As they both entered the hall she noticed the decorations, whoever decorated must have paid attention to every meticulous detail. Every wall of the Great Hall was covered with a light frost and had some variation of holly or garland. Through the windows one could see that it was snowing. The long tables that usually occupy the Great Hall were replaced with smaller circular tables decorated with beautiful light blue lace tablecloths and small ambient candles. The thousands of candles that normally hung over the heads of the students were still present, but they seemed less plentiful than usual. A large pine tree dominated over all the guests of the Yule Ball with dazzling silver garland and thousands of shining ornaments, the distinctive scent of the tree lingered in the room. The ambiance was perfect, any aversion that Aurelia had towards the ball instantly disappeared. She smiled wide and gripped onto his hand tighter. He lead her to a table towards the back corner of the hall that was occupied by his twin brother, his date, one of her dear friends, Camilla and some others that she only vaguely knew. They sat down next to each other, she squeezed his hand once again not able to shake the grin off her face. She speaks up. 

"Tonight is going to be absolutely marvelous." Aurelia said.

"You think so?" He said with a half-smile.

"I know so, George."

 

Aurelia Dunne was not aware that she had magical blood. Throughout her years she did just as a Muggle child would- she attended a grade school, she learned how to ride a bike, she visited the park nearly every afternoon. But one day after playing with her brother, her mother asked her if she could come inside the kitchen. She strutted in, clearly cheerful about having another fun summer day. 

But Reese Dunne felt quite the opposite in the moment. Reese had been dreading for years to have this talk with her oldest daughter, and later on, her younger son. On the counter top sat a letter, which Reese knew exactly what it contained in the envelope. It was the same one that Richard kept in one of his boxes. She knew of her daughter's naturally curious nature and she knew that she would have millions of questions and she knew she would not have the answers, as she was merely a muggle. The letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was left on her front porch on one of her lawn chairs, along with it was a small feather, a clear reminder of a world that was completely unknown to her. As her daughter approached her she let out an apprehensive sigh.

"Hi Aurelia," Reese's voice faltered. "I've got something for you." Her daughter practically beamed, she knew that she could not turn back at this point. Reese took the letter off the counter and handed her daughter the letter. Reese giggled to herself quietly as Aurelia struggled to open the wax seal. Reese felt a weight in her heart as her daughter's eyes examined the words on the page. Aurelia's mouth slightly opened, she looked at Reese with a confused expression.

"Mum, I don't think I understand." She said in a quiet voice. Reese got down on one knee and grabbed one of her hands. 

"Aurelia, I know that letter probably made little to no sense to you, but I am going to try my best to explain what I can. Can you go get your brother for me?" Reese said in a hushed tone. Aurelia slowly nodded and let go of her mother's hand. She scurried out the back glass door and began to call for her younger brother. Reese sighed to herself as she stood up and sat in a nearby stool. Reese was staring at the wall in front of her a bit as she contemplated her situation. She knew it was the right thing to let her child go to Hogwarts, but she did not know how she was going to deal with it. Even though she would still have the company of her son, Gregory, she knew that there was going to be a hole in her heart the day she leaves. Her two children walked back into the kitchen a minute later, knowing Aurelia she already told Gregory what she read. Reese looked away from the wall and returned her attention to her children.

"Come on kids, follow me." She said as she stood up from her stool. Reese and her two children went up the stairs and into her bedroom. Aurelia and Gregory both jumped on the bed and waited for what their mother had to say to them. Reese opened her closet door and underneath a couple containers was a box. This box stayed in that exact spot for around a decade. She pulled it out, walked over to the bed where her kids were sitting and she carefully set it on the bed: Aurelia naturally stared at the box. Reese sat in between her two children and began to speak.

"Kids, I know throughout the years I did not give you a lot of information on your father, but I want you to know he was extraordinary in multiple ways..." Reese looked at her children, Aurelia's focus was still on the box, but Gregory was attentively listening to Reese's words. She continued to speak. "An example of this would be... that he was a wizard." Aurelia attention was snatched away from the box and rightfully given to her mother. "When I met your father I didn't have the slightest concept of what wizardry was. He never told me that he was a wizard until the night before we got married, but from my understanding you two will learn all about the powers you inherited at Hogwarts." Reese reached behind her, placed the box on her lap and opened it to reveal the contents. Aurelia placed her head against her mother's arm to get a closer look of whats inside. Reese smiled as she pulled out a yellow and black tie out of the box. "He only told me so much of his school days, but they were definitely some of his fondest memories. The school divided its students into different factions, known as houses. His tie signified that he was a part of the Hufflepuff house." Aurelia's faced contorted. 

"Mum, that sounds a little bit ridiculous." Aurelia said in a half joking manner, Reese chuckled.

"Well Aurelia, if you want honesty I all the stories your father told me were a little ridiculous, but they were also wonderful at the same time." Reese smiled to herself, she sincerely thought that she might start crying. She will certainly be upset about the absence of her children, but she also knows that the Wizarding school will help them grow. She went through the contents of the box, she showed them their father's acceptance letter and one of his old textbooks about the subject of charms. At the bottom of the box was a photograph of Reese and Richard sharing a warm embrace. The children were impressed by how the photograph moved, but Reese let out a small smirk. She knew that her children were set for adventure and nothing could make her happier. 

 

On the morning of July 22nd Aurelia Dunne was anxiously sitting on a stool in the kitchen, swinging her feet all about. Reese was doing some last minute preparation, she asked one of the neighbors to watch Gregory and now she was organizing some things in her purse. Only a week ago Aurelia discovered that she was a witch, a real witch. Not some fantastical fiction kind of witch, a real witch. After she received her letter, her mother promised her that she would take her to Diagon Alley, which from her understanding was like a magical marketplace kind of thing. The letter she received stated that she would need robes, a pointed hat, protective gloves, a winter clock and a slew of magical texts. Aurelia knew instantly that she would stay far away from the pointed hat, but the robes sounded a bit cool. Another thing was the wand, how awesome is it going to be to learn how use it. Aurelia has no idea what she is going to learn at this Wizardry school, there is just so much information she going to attain during her seven years at Hogwarts and she could not be more excited. At the top of the first page she sees a note stating that they need to send an owl as a reply. Aurelia eagerly stood up, she never had a pet before!

"Mum! The school says that we need to send an owl back, does that mean I'm getting an owl?" She asked with anticipation. Reese gave her daughter an apprehensive smile. 

"Well, I guess they won't accept anything from the post..." Reese stated.

"So the answer is yes?" Reese sighed with a smile.

"Alright, but you're cleaning the cage."

 

Getting to Diagon Alley was quite the process, Aurelia and her mother started their journey with a 30 minute bus ride, then the pair entered a grubby old pub called The Leaky Cauldron. The tenants of the pub gave Reese a weird glances when she came in, but they quickly returned to their own conversations. Reese asked the bartender about how she could get to Diagon Alley, the old man behind the counter gave her a strange look until he saw Aurelia's beaming face. 

"Ah, a young witch! You two can follow me." He lead the two to the back to a brick wall, he pressed a few bricks with a iron fire poker and the bricks all collapsed. Behind the bricks were hundreds, possibly thousands of people all wearing bold colors. Aurelia thanked the man and dragged her mom towards the shopping area. The buildings seemed like they were there for many centuries, the shop had windows displaying various magical items, she saw one with broomsticks, one with many magical books and one with cauldrons. She noted where the cauldrons were and began her journey through Diagon Alley.

The pair visited Gringotts right as they came in to see what was left in the Dunne bank vault, Richard did not have a whole lot of relatives. Yet, Richard's mother kept his siblings out of his vault so that Aurelia and Gregory would be able to use his money. Neither one of the two really understood the wizard currency, so they grabbed a little of every kind of coin. Since Aurelia was the most excited to pick up the books they went straight to the book store after the bank. Aurelia attentively picked up all the books one the list, she knew the minute that she was home she would scan the contents of A History of Magic. They then went to get all the clothing items that they needed from Madam Malkin's. Reese waited in the front of the robe store as Aurelia was getting fitted, while she was standing she made awkward eye contact with an older witch. Despite her daughters excitement, she knew that she wanted to leave Diagon Alley as soon as possible. Everyone seems to know that she was not one of them and she was getting quite tired of the looks she was getting. 

When Aurelia smelled the odd must that Ollivander's had she knew that this place had to be ancient. The store was lit by a dim light and it was filled to the brim with small rectangular boxes, some of them look like they have been there for forever. Suddenly an older man slid down to front of the store on a ladder and gave Aurelia a smile. 

"Hm, its been a while since I picked a wand for a Dunne." He stepped down from the ladder and started to examine the shelves. "You know your family has given me trouble throughout the years, your kind seems to be a stubborn bunch." Aurelia stayed silent as Olivander let out a subtle laugh. He pulled out a box and placed on the counter between him. The man gestured towards the box. "Come on, try it." Aurelia stood still for a bit, not exactly sure what he was implying. "Just give it a flick." Aurelia nodded, she quickly fumbled with the box and grabbed the wand. It was a light color and seem relatively small. She gave it a quick flick and nothing happened. "Yes, I knew it was going to be like this. Give me a moment." He went to the back of the store, out of Aurelia's sight and when he came back he had somewhere around a dozen boxes. After trying somewhere around five different wands, she picked up the sixth box and suddenly her hand began to tingle. Aurelia smiled to her self, she knew that this was the one. With a quick motion, several of the wands fell out of the shelf and Olivander gave Aurelia a hearty smile. "Well miss, seems you found your match."

 

The last stop on the trip was to the shop with the owls. Besides the books, the thing that Aurelia was most excited for was the owl. Birds truly are amazingly intelligent creatures and she knew that she would have a great bond with whichever one she choose. After looking at several of the birds her focus shifted to a plain barn owl, he looked realtievly simple, but was a pretty light brown color. By the way he acted around the other owls, Aurelia noted that was a rowdy bird. While some would think this trait would be annoying, it just made Aurelia more interested in the owl. He squawked at Aurelia right as she moved close to him and in that moment she knew that he was the one. She handed a few sickles to the store keeper and promptly left the store to show her mother her new friend. 

 

When the day arrived for Aurelia to leave to Hogwarts Reese may have cried, but Gregory sobbed his eyes out. Reese drove both her children to the train station where she was going to see her daughter for the last time in months. Her heart felt heavy, but her mind raced about the endless possibilities that her daughter will be exposed to. The good-bye's were brief, Reese knew that Aurelia was waiting for this day in anticipation since her letter arrived. Gregory held onto his mother as they both watched Aurelia run through Platform 9 and 3/4's.

 

The train ride was not very eventful for Aurelia, she did enjoy seeing the beautiful English countryside, but there was nothing much of note. She sat in a compartment with other first years, even though she was interested in what these kids had to say she did not want to intrude on their conversation. There was a woman selling candies that she never heard of in her life, but those did not exactly interest her. She would sometimes stare out of the compartment door and see some characters, people wearing different color ties, there was a group of boys who all had red hair, she guessed they were brothers. Her thoughts went back to her own brother, in couple of years the train ride will be better because she will be able to spend it with Gregory. But for now she stared out the window, wondering what exactly her life will be like at Hogwarts. 

 

Aurelia did not understand why they made the Sorting Ceremony so public. She did not know too much about the houses, she heard things that the other first years said on the train, but she did not have enough information. As the names were being called she scolded herself under her breath for having a last name in the beginning of the alphabet. When Professor McGonagall announced her name she rapidly scurried to the stool where the students prior to her sat. McGonagall placed the hat over her head and instantly started to whisper things to her. 

"Hmmm, your mind definitely has potential to be great, but you do have a sneaky aspect to you. But your main drive seems to be dependent on learning so I think I will place you in..." There was a pause. "RAVENCLAW" The hat bellowed. The students at the Ravenclaw table began to clap for Aurelia as she made her way down to the Ravenclaw table. She sat next to a lanky blonde boy and watched as the other first years were called down to get sorted. There was no one of note besides a pair of twins that got sorted into Gryffindor. Aurelia was slightly jealous of the two because they did not have to separate like she and Gregory did. Aurelia did not dwell on it too long since right after the Sorting Ceremony a large feast appeared on the table. 

 

On Aurelia's first day of class she struggled to find her way down to the dungeon to her potions class. Luckily for her she decided that it was wise to leave a few minutes early, so she arrived to class right on time. Since Aurelia did not know anyone she knew it did not matter where she sat, so she took a seat near the back next to a black haired girl. She placed her books on the desk and the girl quickly sized her up, Aurelia does the same. The girl is wearing a Slytherin tie and does not seem like the friendliest of people. This didn't defer Aurelia, she sits in the stool besides her anyways. Before the girl had a chance to speak, a loud noise resonates in the classroom as someone barges through the door and hurriedly walks down the center of the room. The man must be the professor, Aurelia only has been here for a few days, but she heard from other students that Professor Snape was bit of a crab apple. Aurelia was not a big fan of confrontation so instead of snickering when Professor Snape made an off-colored statement she kept her mouth shut. Aurelia as watched as other Ravenclaw's lost points for their house for making comments about Snape's strange nature. In the middle of the lesson the class was assigned to make a basic potion with the person sitting next to us. After a few minutes of working in silence, the Slytherin girl spoke up.

"Hey, I like you. You know how to restrain yourself unlike anyone else in this room, what's your name?" Aurelia smiled at this comment, Aurelia did make a similar observation, but she does not have the nerve to announce it. That in Aurelia's opinion was admirable.

"Aurelia Dunne. How about you?" She stated plainly, as she put several roots into the cauldron. 

"Camilla Strudwick. I think I am going to hang around you for a while, I haven't meet anyone else our age who hasn't found a way to annoy me." Aurelia chuckled at this comment, she decided that she liked the way that Camilla was blunt. 

"I have no problem with that."


	2. Chapter One

"So a little bird told me that you're dropping Divination" Aurelia took her attention away from the book she was reading and looked up at Camilla. She put a loose piece of paper where she left off and began to speak.

"Yeah, it seemed interesting to me when I first started here cause, you know, I didn't really have a concept of what it was. After taking it a couple of years I think I just felt like there was other classes that could be interesting. I signed up for Arithmancy this year instead." She stated plainly as she placed her book to the side. 

"Honestly, only a dork like you would think about it that much." Camilla chuckled. "You can make up half the answers for Divination and you went into Arithmancy knowing it would be harder. No wonder why Flitwick gave you that badge." Aurelia gave Camilla half a smile, hung on the left side of her robes was a silver prefect badge. Aurelia was not under the impression that she was going to be appointed a prefect, she really didn't consider herself a standout student. Sure she thought of herself as intelligent, but certainly not the most intelligent in her house. She imagines that she was given the position because there were only so many Ravenclaw's in her year and her name was at the top of the list. 

"I mean if were talking achievements, I bet that if Marcus Flint wasn't so daft, and actually graduated when he was supposed to, that you would be the captain of your Qudditch team." Camilla laughed at this statement.

"Yeah right, Aurelia. Sure I could fly better than all those boys on the team, but you know perfectly well that I don't fit into their brawny and brainless clique." Camilla began to fiddle around with the necklace she was wearing. "The only reason that I was allowed to play all those years is because I practically begged to Madam Hooch. The other chasers only passed to me when they had to." Camilla said this with a slight bitterness in her voice, Aurelia tried to catch her gaze and smiled at her. 

"Well if I knew someone who had the guts to reform the team it would be you Camilla." Aurelia stated this as a fact. Camilla let go of the necklace and returned her smile. "Even if you have to sit through another year of Flint's stupid reign I will be there at all your Quidditch games, hoping that Marcus gets clocked in the head with a bludger." 

Several years has passed since Aurelia and Camilla sat in the Potions Room together for the first time. The two were both on their way to Hogwarts for their fifth year. When the train first departed Aurelia's the pair and Aurelia's younger brother Gregory sat in a compartment in the back of the train, but after a while Gregory left to find his Hufflepuff friends: Aurelia knew that he would ditch them eventually. While Aurelia made acquaintances during her years at Hogwarts, nobody else knew her like Camilla did. Aurelia could not be more greatful for Camilla's friendship.

"So what did you do this summer?" Camilla asked. Aurelia just shrugged.

"I did normal stuff, since the summer is the only time that I see my Mum now I just try to spend as much time with her as I can. Me and Greg take her out to eat and to movies and whatever. I have a few Muggle friends from grade school that I saw quite a few times, but its getting harder and harder to talk to them. All they seem to want to talk about are the people who go to their school. Like people they think are mean, who they have crushes on, etc. etc." Aurelia shook her hand towards the end of her little speech.

"Oh, that just sounds enthralling." Aurelia rolled her eyes.

"Okay Ms. Interesting, what did you do this summer?" Before Camilla had anytime to answer, the train stopped abruptly. The atmosphere suddenly felt heavy. Aurelia quickly glanced at Camilla, neither one had an explanation. The train never stopped before mid-course. Outside their compartments students of all ages and houses came into the hallway, trying to examine the source of the problem. Seconds later all the lights that illuminated the train flickered off. 

"What do you think this is all about?" Camilla asked. Aurelia didn't have an answer, she instinctively looked out the window and gasped. Outside the train was these large floating creatures, they all looked like as if they were wearing disheveled black cloaks. Aurelia felt her heart drop.

"Dementors? This close to Hogwarts?" Before Camilla had a chance to comment their compartment door slammed open. In the doorway stood Aurelia's younger brother Greg, clearly distraught, but still attempting to look unswayed. 

"Hey, hey, hey, Aurelia." He said with false confidence, he quickly closed the compartment door and took the seat next to his sister. "Just came to check on you, since the whole, you know, stopping business. You guys have been here longer than I have, has the train stopped before? I am not all that worried, but Cecilia looked like she was going to cry and I don't have the information. Of course, I feel like if the train stopped before you would have told me. But I need to find the info for Cecilia. It seems like something the train shouldn't do, stopping that is." Even though the atmosphere was incredibly cold Aurelia could not help feeling a little better when Greg came in. He obviously wasn't fearless, but she really appreciated the sentiment. Greg seemed to notice Camilla's fixed attention on the window and he made some unidentifiable high-pitched noise. "Uhhhhh, what is that nonsense?!" He said hurriedly, grabbing onto his sister's arm. 

"It's a dementor, Azkaban uses them to keep their prisoners in check. They are known to suck out the happiness from any wizard." Aurelia explained in a hush tone.

"Did you see the posters at the train station?" Camilla asked the siblings, Aurelia shook her head. "Sirius Black is on the loose, he escaped from Azkaban." 

"Camilla. Wizards don't escape from Azkaban." 

"Well, he managed." Camilla uttered. 

"What did he do to get sent there?" Asked Greg. 

"He set off a blasting charm, it killed a couple of wizards and somewhere around a dozen muggles. There is more around the story, but my Dad says that its mostly speculation. There were no survivors." Camilla explained. Aurelia eyes turned back to the window, the dementor was gone. Her gaze shifted to the window leading out to the hallway. In that moment the shadowy figure that was outside somehow managed to get into the train. It didn't take long for the other two to notice, Greg's grip on his sister's arm got tighter and Camilla moved as far from the door as she could. Luckily for them, the dementor passed right by their compartment without noticing the three. After a few moments of silence Greg spoke up.

"I think I am going to be sick."

 

The three waited somewhere around ten minutes in silence. After a screeching noise emitted from the hallway the trains lights came back on, shortly after the train began moving once again. Greg shot up from his seat. 

"I think that means that you two are safe. Don't thank me too much, I was just doing the work of a hero." He said, with his hand across his chest. 

"Having you in here just made me feel so much better, Greg." Aurelia snickered at Camilla's comment and turned to a disheartened Greg.

"Yeah I think were good Greg. Thanks for your for your help, Mr. Hero." Aurelia replied. Greg clears his throat and took a second to straighten his posture. 

"Well ladies, glad to give you my service. Have a good rest of your trip." Greg opened the door and left once again, leaving the girls by themselves.

"Well, its going to be another one of those years." Aurelia addressed.

 

Nothing else happened significant happened for the rest of the ride to Hogwarts. As a prefect she had to attend a short meeting with the other prefects, head boys and head girls. Percy Weasley, the Gryffindor Head Boy, lead most of the meeting and didn't make any comments on the train stopping, which was strange in her opinion. He went over rules, the proper way to be a prefect and the things one should do if they wanted to lose their badge. Aurelia knew that she was never going to be that passionate about the position. At least she knew the year was going to be interesting because of Potter being around. She noticed that she remembers very little of her first two years because there was no danger present at Hogwarts, but ever since Potter started attending school all these things began to happen. There was that troll in the dungeon, the Chamber of Secrets was opened, the Basilisk slithered through the hallways, just to name a few. 

Aurelia doesn't exactly blame Harry for these things happening, but she noticed the correlation. She quite honestly felt bad for the kid, he has so much to be upset about. Aurelia lost her Father when she was younger, but she still had Greg and her Mum, Harry didn't have anyone. She couldn't imagine what her life would be like without her family. Aurelia also heard rumors that the muggles that he stayed with mistreated him since they got him. There had to be so much weight on his shoulders. She never tried to pay too much attention to him because there had to be so much on his mind and she knows that attention is not something that is always enjoyable. Yet, she still respected the kid for living with the pressure and accomplishing so much. She hopes one day that she'll actually have a chance to talk to the kid. 

 

Ravenclaw got six new students this year, but Aurelia stopped really paying attention to first years a couple years ago. She sat next to Roger Davies and Cho Chang at the feast, she didn't really know either one of them well. She made light conversation with those around her and, in her opinion, had too much roasted chicken and mashed potatoes. Since she was one of the newest prefects she had to lead the new students to the Ravenclaw common room and had to introduce them to the Bronze Eagle Knocker. She let the first years try to solve the riddle at first, but eventually got impatient and just gave the quiet kid towards the back the answer. Shortly after showing them around the common room she retired to the fifth years girls dorm. She said the room with two girls named Lillian and Marie, she was never that close to them, but they were nice enough to her. She knew she was going to have to get a good amount of sleep because this year was going to be the hardest one yet, with OWLs and all that. She just hopes that she will get a good schedule. 

 

When Aurelia gets her schedule she already feels overwhelmed. Double potions first with Gryffindor. She seemed to always get stuck with potions first and she was not excited to start her year with Professor Snape once again. She was alright with workload in potions class because it was a lot of independent work, but even though Snape didn't target her he just made the atmosphere stressful. She sighs, hopefully it will be different this year.

 

Aurelia walked down to the potions classroom with Marie. Marie was telling Aurelia about how a couple of fourth years already got caught in the middle of the night by Filch. Aurelia tried her best to listen to Marie, but the gossip never really caught her attention. When they got to the potions room Aurelia took a seat in a desk in the back of the classroom, Marie took the seat next to her. Aurelia took out some parchment, her potions book and a quill and prepared to take notes.

 

Snape was pestering one of the Gryffindor girls on the other side of the classroom when Aurelia noticed something odd. The Weasley twins were sitting in front of her, which in itself wasn't strange. She has had plenty of classes with those two throughout the years. They normally caused some kind of trouble with the teachers, so it was pretty easy to notice them. The thing that stood out to Aurelia is that they were both hiding a piece of parchment under their table. Aurelia glanced in the general direction of Snape, then pushed her stool as close to the table as she could. She didn't think of the two as secretive kind of people and since Snape wasn't really teaching too much today she needed something to occupy her. She couldn't exactly make out was on the parchment, but she could see that the contents were moving. Aurelia was a little impressed, the charm to make the words on parchment move wasn't that difficult, but didn't exactly think the pair was very competent. She wondered if the two were plotting something against Snape, Aurelia probably wouldn't mind that much if they were. 

As Aurelia was thinking to herself she failed to notice that one of the twins noticed that she was staring in their direction. 

"Seems like we have a shadow, Fred." George said quietly to Fred and he shoved the parchment under one of the books. Aurelia eventually realized that they put the paper away, she shrugs it off and hopes that they would actually start making potions soon. 

 

Aurelia was walking to with Marie, until Marie got distracted by some older Hufflepuff guy. Now Aurelia was roaming the halls by herself. After lunch she has Herbology with the Slytherins, so at least she can look forward to having Camilla to talk to. As Aurelia turns a corner she feels herself crashing into something. She falls backwards dropping her books in the process. She looks up to see that she bumped into Weasley twins, she quickly grabs her books, brushes herself off and stands back up. 

"I'm sorry about that, I wasn't watching where I was going." Aurelia admitted, she saw as one of them smiled at the other. 

"Hm, I seem to recall you watching something earlier today..." One of the two said. Aurelia let out a small laugh.

"I am not sure what you mean by that." 

"If I remember correctly, you seemed like you were quite interested in this." The one on the right pulled out a blank piece of parchment. Aurelia was a bit confused by this, she does recall looking at a piece of parchment in potions class, but it had moving words on it. It just look like they're showing her a loose piece of parchment. 

"Is this some kind of trick?" Aurelia asked. 

"Hm, it could be. We are pretty fond of tricks." Aurelia sighed. The Weasley twins never approached her before, so they must be looking for something out of her. She never heard of the two being mean or anything so she doesn't expect one of them to bully her for her homework, but they are definitely seeking something.

"I guess you want to know what I was looking at in potions, right?" They both looked at each other and nodded. Aurelia rolled her eyes and grabbed the blank piece of parchment from one of them. "As Snape was being an insufferable human being as always..." One of the two muttered something along the lines of 'she's right.' 

"I was looking at the desk in front of me that sat you two. I am admittedly kind of a snoop, so when I saw you two hiding something under you desk I was intrigued. I pulled my stool closer to see that you two had a piece of parchment similar to this one," she shook the parchment in her free hand "but instead of blank it had words that were moving. My instinct, based on the things I heard about you two, was that you were planning to somehow prank Professor Snape, which note that I would not be totally opposed to that idea." Aurelia got the feeling that this was not the answer the twins were expecting, they were both just looking each other. Aurelia wondered if they had telepathy or something because they both seemed to reach a conclusion at the same. 

"Your name is Aurelia, right?" The one on the right asked, she nodded in response. "Do us a favor and hold the piece of parchment out." Aurelia thought this was a weird request, but she complied, using her right hand to hold the piece of parchment to the Weasleys. Most of the things she seen these two do were harmless, so the worst that can happen is she gets zapped or ink spilled on her uniform. "George do the honors." The one on the left, or now known as George, took his wand out of his pocket and placed it on the paper.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Suddenly ink emerges from the folded piece of parchment and in a few moments it reads 'Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot & Prongs are proud to present the Marauders Map.' She looks up at the two for a brief moment and starts to look at the contents. She sees the name of some students, professors even her own name, the map also lists the names of all the classrooms and who's in them. She is stunned. 

"Now this is some impressive magic." She states as she looks back up to them. "Whoever did this really knows their stuff about Hogwarts, they even got that hidden passage on the fourth floor." She keeps flipping around looking for names that she knows, she sees Camilla already in the Great Hall, sitting at there normal spot at the Ravenclaw table.

"We made it." Fred proclaimed with pride. Aurelia knew that he was lying.

"No you didn't. Whoever Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs are did. One could assume that you guys could be two of them, but I don't imagine that you two let others into your plans that often and I don't believe any of those nicknames really suit either one of you. I am guessing this is how you two found me here, actually speaking of that, why did you two really want to talk to me?" 

"We didn't know how much you saw..." George stated.

"And we didn't want to you to rat on us. We thought we were maybe going to have to make a compromise." Fred finished. She gave the two a confused glance.

"Why would you think that I would rat on you?" She asked. 

"Well when you live the way me and George do you got to be extra careful around the people with the badge." Fred pointed to Aurelia's prefect badge.

"Oh now I get it. Well if you want honesty I don't know why they gave this to me. Sure I never been in major trouble and I do get pretty good marks, but I don't think I'm suited for the job. I know I don't have it in me to chastise other people." 

"Well we're glad you're not a very serious prefect! Our brother Percy is head boy and I think he would implode if we were to show him the map." 

"Yeah, he probably would. We see him all the time with Penelope Clearwater and mentioning that would make him angry enough." George noted.

"Okay, if it makes you guys feel better I'm not going to tell anyone about this. I don't really gain anything in reprimanding other students." She handed the map back to Fred. "If that's all you wanted from me then I am going to head to lunch. I'll see you guys later, I guess." Aurelia smiled at the pair and continued to hurriedly walk to the Great Hall. 

 

Aurelia left the two twins standing in the corridor by themselves. They were happy that they wouldn't end their first day getting scolded in McGonagall's office, or at least for a reason as minor as this. Fred watched as Aurelia's name got closer and closer to the Great Hall. George began to think about Aurelia, she was just so lenient about the map and she seems like she would be willing to help them. Well getting in trouble was common for them, she could definitely help them approach a whole new angle with messing with Percy and even some of the teachers. George spoke up.

"Hey Freddie, are you thinking what I am thinking?"

"I think so, my friend. I think we should hang around our prefect friend more often."

"Exactly."


	3. Chapter Two

Aurelia didn't know how to feel about the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher; she has had quite a few characters as teachers and you never truly know when one of them is going to drop dead or go crazy. Remus Lupin seemed kind enough, yet he seemed a little... grungy. Aurelia hasn't found a real reason to dislike him though. There was definitely a few things off about the room when they walked in, to start out, all the desks were pushed to the sides of the room and in the center of the room stood a large wardrobe. While Aurelia had her suspicions, Camilla didn't seemed to be too phased by the environment.

"Honestly, if this is some sort of hands on activity it's already better than what we did in Transfiguration today." Camilla stated plainly, plopping her books onto the ground and taking a seat on top one of the desks.

"Yeah, but it's the first day. A normal teacher would just talk for ages and then maybe get to the actual interesting things. I just don't want a repeat of Lockhart." Aurelia said, Camilla shrugged.

"This Lupin guy can't be as full of himself as Lockhart, I don't think another human like that even exists." Camilla said, seconds later she let out a big yawn. Aurelia knew in her mind that Camilla was right, no one could be like the teacher they had last year, but Dumbledore has a habit of picking weirdos. Aurelia eventually joined Camilla and took a seat on the desk, Lupin was certainly taking his time. A few minutes later the sound of the door slamming open echoed in the classroom. Remus Lupin had a large book in his hand that he dropped on the desk in the back right corner, causing another boom to erupt. He then turned around to the class. 

"Hello, I am Remus Lupin, your new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher." He said as he clapped his two hands together. He spoke in a calm voice and looked around the classroom at the students, Aurelia could tell that this was his first time doing something like this. "I feel like traditional teaching is not always the best way to learn, so we are going to do some practical practice today. Of course I would never put you guys in real danger, but let's get started. Everyone one in a single file line." 

The students complied, the students who were really into it stood in the front, always overexcited to learn. Aurelia likes to think she's that way too, but she isn't anxious to see what's in the locked wardrobe. Aurelia and Camilla went towards the back of the line. Lupin walked up to the kid in the front of the line and put his hand on his shoulder. 

"Okay, your name is Arnold right?" The kid nodded, Lupin continued to speak. "Okay Arnold, inside that wardrobe is a boggart, you know what a boggart is?" 

"It's a creature that transforms into someone's greatest fear." Arnold stated with a hint of anxiety. 

"Yes, great job Arnold. Do you know what the boggart will transform into for you?" Lupin asked with a warm smile. 

"Most likely a snake." Lupin looked away for a second in thought and then turned his attention back to Arnold. 

"Alright, the best way to face a boggart is with laughter, it will confuse them immensely. When I open this wardrobe the boggart will take the form of a snake and Arnold you'll need to cast the spell Riddikulus, alright?" Arnold nodded and Lupin smiled. "Now everyone behind Arnold get ready because I trust that you all are going to do the same." 

Aurelia did not know what to expect the boggart to turn into, most of her fears were abstract things like confrontation and failure, but a boggart isn't going to turn to a piece of parchment with a bad mark on it. She used to have a problem with dogs in the past, but that was so long ago and she likes to think she's over it. She also wondered what the boggart will turn into for Camilla; the only times that Aurelia saw her slightly scared is when people sneak up on her or when the dementors were on the train, but those were both perfectly good reasons. 

Lupin took a few steps to Arnold's right by some of the desks and flicked his wand. The ornate doorknob twisted to the side and a large snake emerged from the wadrobe. Everyone could see Arnold shudder as the snake crept closer to him. 

"Riddikulus!" Arnold yelled, suddenly a thin sheet of ice emerged under the snake. The snake quickly fell onto its face and a surge of laughter erupted in the room. Lupin gave Arnold a reaffirming nod and gestured to get him the end of the line. Adrian Pucey was next, the boggart transformed in a giant scorpion. Adrian was obviously ready for this because he casted the spell in seconds, causing the scorpion to spray silly string instead of poison. 

The laughter was continuous. Dragons spat out snot, mermaids turned into trouts, most people were scared for the first few moments, but then successfully change the boggart into something, for the lack of a better word, ridiculous. Lupin was shouting encouraging words to every student while watching from the side. When it was Aurelia's turn the boggart fell onto the ground and shifted into a cloaked figure with boney hands, slowly crawling towards her. Aurelia did not know what to think of this, it certainly was eerie, but nothing too terrifying. She shouted the spell and the cloak flew off of the creature, revealing a skeleton with a wig and lipstick on the jaw. People were roaring with laughter. Moments later the all the bones collapsed, a clatter resonated in the room and with a poof the bones were gone. Everyone stood still, nobody was really sure what happened, but Lupin seemed happy. 

"Congratulations, you guys just tamed a boggart. I'm going to give 30 points to both houses for all of you who participated, 5 points for Arnold for going first and 10 points to Aurelia for finishing it off. Class, you are dismissed." Many students walked out of class happy, many bragging about what they did today. Aurelia did not know what to think about the boggart, it didn't turn into something that was 'truly terrifying,' it just all seemed weird to her. Aurelia was also upset that she didn't get a chance to see what the boggart turned into for Camilla. 

Aurelia and Camilla picked up their books from the side of the room and right when they are about to leave they get interrupted by Professor Lupin. 

"Hey Aurelia, you did a great job there. I should have expected it, of course. Your father was a great wizard too." Aurelia shuddered at the mere mention of her father, Camilla reacted quickly to this, protectively placing a hand on Aurelia's arm. This wasn't the first time another wizard mentioned her father to her, Ollivander knew who she was and she even had brief conversations with Hagrid about her father, but there was still a bit of a sting. She knew nothing of her father's wizarding career, Hagrid only said things about how he was kind and loyal and her mother is either withdrawing information from her or, more likely, she doesn't know much about his 'other' life. It wasn't like he was insulting him, why is she always so quick to react? We're Lupin and her father close? Did he have a vendetta against him? Does even know that he's dead?

"Oh, uh that's cool Profess-" She stopped for a second giving him a sheepish smile. "I mean, thank you. I, uh, am sure he was great." Lupin then realized the awkward situation that he placed himself in.

"I only have good things to say about Richard, he was a few years ahead of me when I went here and we were something like co-workers after we both graduated. He sure was a special wizard and I expect that you will be the same way." He smiled warmly, but his compliments didn't do much for Aurelia. "I don't think I should keep you from lunch too long, have a good rest of your day. You too Camilla." He announced, as he rushed out the door. Camilla quickly her attention away from the door and looked back to Aurelia.

"Are you good?" Camilla asked, Aurelia gave her a slight grin.

"Yeah I'm fine. No one really mentions my dad to me, even the teachers that have been here forever. It was kind of weird." Aurelia admitted.

"I feel like if someone mentioned my dead parent to me I would be pretty mad about it, but actually thinking about it... I don't think you have it in you to get mad. It was pretty strange of him to mention that" Aurelia nodded at Camilla's comment. "I think we should just head out." 

"Yeah, lets just go"

 

Aurelia had trouble sleeping that night, she kept getting short bursts of sleep and then suddenly waking up after what she imagines was a few minutes. What was even weirder is that she swore she could her someone calling her name every few seconds, she kept on looking at the two other girls who shared a dorm with her, but they don't seem to be up. The first few times she ignored it, but after a while she couldn't handle it anymore. She got out her bed, grabbed her wand from the nightstand and started to walk down to the common room. She searches every nook and cranny for a person who was up, but there was not a soul in the common room. Maybe it was the lack of sleep, but she then decided to go out into the corridors of Hogwarts to search. She had no idea what it was that she was looking for, but she knew she wasn't going to be able to sleep until she found it. She casted the lumos charm and then began to search.

 

Somewhere around twenty minutes passed and Aurelia was still in the halls, not finding someone or something that could have been calling her. Her eyelids were heavy and she was considering falling asleep in the prefect's bathroom, but she decided against it. She thinks she is somewhere on the third floor, but doesn't know exactly where. She eventually finds an out of place bench and lays down on it, whatever convinced her to roam the hallways this late probably wasn't worth it anyways. She can feel herself dozing off after just a few seconds on the bench...

"That doesn't seem like the best place for a nap." Aurelia's eye shot open, her vision was slightly blurred, but the pair of red heads were pretty distinguishable. The two Weasley twins were in front of her, Fred was on a knee and George wasn't standing too far behind. 

"What are you two doing around here so late?" She whispered.

"We could ask you the same thing." Answered Fred. 

"Honestly. Who would know that our great school would have troublemakers like you running it?" Aurelia was too tired to pretend to laugh. The question was probably not the smartest comment she could make, these two probably snuck around the hallways all the time at night all the time. After a few seconds of silence George spoke up again. "Hey are you alright?" 

"What are you three doing out at this hour?" Professor Snape sneered through his teeth. Of course on the one night she goes out the teacher she approaches is Snape. Flitwick and Sprout would definitely let her go, maybe even Lupin, but Snape? She is going to lose five points for Ravenclaw every time she blinks around him. Aurelia had no idea what to say to the man, if she lied he would react negatively and if she was honest he would still react negatively. The twins stepped in. 

"Well we have a bit of a predicament here. We were in the our common room, working hard on some charms homework, when we suddenly heard a crash." George stated.

"Yeah! And when we came out here to see what was going on we found her lying on the ground with a hand on her head." Fred mimicked what I 'did.' It didn't really look like Snape was buying it, Aurelia thought that she might actually get sick.

"She looked ill, her face was flush and expression was dazed, just as she is right now Professor, she is practically delirious." George gestured to Aurelia as he said this. Aurelia noted that her face was definitely flush. 

'Snape had to be practically delirious to think that this was true' Aurelia thought.

"We couldn't leave her like that Professor!" Pleaded George. "We both started to take her down to the hospital wing, but it was such a long way and we needed a break. So we placed her on this bench and now here we are." 

"We had to be gentlemen Professor, wouldn't you do the same?" Asked Fred. Snape scoffed at the two. 

"Do you expect me to believe that outlandish story?" Snape stated with sense of loathing. 

"Well that was enough for me." Aurelia could see another figure appear out of the corner of her eye. Professor Lupin walked onto the scene and took a good look at Aurelia. "Snape, look at the girl. She is obviously under the weather, let the two take her down Madame Pomphrey's, I'll make sure that they end up back in the common room." Snape's gaze shifted from the twins and then to Lupin. He sighed and backed away from the scene. 

"Alright Lupin, but next time I see any of these three roaming the hallways the punishments will be much more..." He gaze shifted to Aurelia. "Severe." Snape grabbed onto his cloak as he sharply turned around the corner. The twins both turned to Aurelia and grinned before returning their attention back to Lupin. Lupin peered over the corner and then began to speak. 

"Guys, I'm not going to follow you down to the hospital wing, but I trust that you two are actually bringing her down there. Don't let me or Professor Snape see you again tonight, alright?" 

"We promise, Professor." George said with a smile. Lupin nodded.

"Well, good night kids. Get better Aurelia." Lupin walked the opposite way that Snape did, Aurelia didn't know how exactly the two did it, but they got away with it. Many thoughts filled Aurelia's head in this moment, but only one came out. 

"You little shits actually pulled it off."


End file.
